Happy Birthday, Jessie
by papervirtue
Summary: Jessie and James have failed again, but maybe they can cheer each other up.


Lame RocketShipping to get over the biggest case of writer's block EVER.

+ + + is a change of scenery. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ is a change of P.O.V.

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Team Rocket was tired. It had been a long hard day of failure, and Jessie, James, and Meowth were standing in front of an old motel. A sign next to it showed the phrase "So good, we don't have any stars". The name of the motel was faded away. James heaved a sigh. No stars and it was still almost too much for them to afford. "I guess we'd better go in", he said finally. Nodding in agreement, Jessie and Meowth trudged through the motel's single door after James.

"This is _it?!_", an angry Jessie thundered when they got to their room. "They could have at least given us a chair!" Remembering that when she was little, she sometimes didn't even have shelter, Jessie shut up. The room she had just been yelling about was big enough for a queen-sized bed and not much else. As a matter of fact, all it held was a queen-sized bed and a doorway that led to a bathroom containing only a toilet.

"You can have the bed, Jessie", James offered graciously. He knew it would have turned out like that anyway. Jessie on the bed, Meowth and him on the floor. Besides, he didn't want to risk putting Jessie in a worse mood.

"How come I hafta-", started Meowth, but Jessie shut him up with a death glare.

"Um, maybe we should get to bed", said James awkwardly. "It's getting late." Wordlessly, Jessie turned and lay face down on the bed and promptly discovered it had no pillows. She sighed. Cautiously, James and Meowth layed down on the floor. Wiggling around a bit, James took off his jacket and gave to Meowth to use as a blanket. Meowth mouthed his thanks and curled up into a ball. James watched Meowth for an hour and a half until he saw his breathing deepened. James rolled over only to find Jessie staring at him, her eyes glinting like jewels from the light coming from the crack under the door. James raised an eyebrow at her.

Turning the faintest shade of pink, Jessie whispered,"I couldn't sleep and you looked pretty uncomfortable on the floor, so I thought...", she trailed off. James didn't say anything. Jessie took a breath and continued in a slightly harder tone, "I figured you'd be all whiny in the morning from sleeping on the floor, so I'm inviting you to come up here as long as you don't keep me awake."

"Thanks, Jess", said James gratefully.

"Don't get used to it", she growled. James smiled and got up on the bed, where he promptly fell asleep.

Jessie stirred. It was morning, and she was only half awake. Knowing that James would wake her up at around 6:30 so they could go after the twerps again, she snuggled closer to her pillow. Only the beds didn't _have_ pillows. Jessie opened her eyes.

James opened his eyes. It was morning and he was almost fully awake. He checked his watch and felt something snuggle against him. Looking down in surprise, he saw Jessie with her arms around him. She appeared to be waking up. James closed his eyes and pretended to be asleep, hoping for the moment to last.

Jessie saw that she was cuddled up close to James, who was thankfully still asleep. She closed her eyes and went back to sleep. She liked being this close to James. Half an hour later, she woke up and decided that she had done _way_ too much sleeping for it to not be 6:30 yet. She checked a sleeping James's watch and saw that it was 8:30. They were late. "JAMES!"

"JAMES!" James woke up to the sound of Jessie hollering his voice, and she did_ not_ sound happy. He checked his watch. 8:31. Oops. He sat up and looked at the fiery ball of rage that was Jessie. "I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS. WE ARE AN HOUR AND A HALF LATE FOR TWERP CHASING. DO YOU WANT US TO GET FIRED? OR KILLED? WHY DIDN'T YOU WAKE ME UP?!" Jessie paused to catch her breath. She panted angrily.

"I'm sorry Jessie, but-"

"SORRY? WE'LL SEE HOW SORRY YOU ARE WHEN WE LOSE OUR JOBS." Meowth, who had woken up midway through this rant, hid under the bed with his paws over his ears.

"But Jessie, it's your birthday!", exclaimed James. "I thought I'd let you have the day off."

"Since when have you cared about my birthday?", asked Jessie, determined to be angry. She didn't even know which day of the week it was. How did _James_ keep track of her birthday? He was pretty much the most unorganized person ever. Still... Looking back, Jessie realized that once every year, James and Meowth said happy birthday to her and did their best to give her the best treatment possible. And once a year, Meowth got two 'Happy Birthdays' and rode on James's head all day long. And once a year, James got a donut with a candle in it.

James looked hurt at Jessie's question. "Jessie! I've always cared about you." Jessie raised her eyebrows. "-R birthday", tacked on James abruptly. "Now sit back down and let me treat you like a princess." Jessie disliked the firm tone James was using, but at the same time found it a refreshing change from the frightened squeak he usually used when addressing her.

"And just how are you going to do that?", she asked drily.

James appeared to be at a loss. Finally, he said, "Wait here." Jessie nodded and watched as James dashed off.

James came back later with a bag of chips and a bottle of orange soda. Looking a little embarassed, he said, "Happy birthday, princess Jessie", and handed her the chips and soda. Jessie took them and, setting the chips down, twisted off the bottle cap. "I didn't think that was a twist-off", whispered James to Meowth, who had come out from under the bed. Jessie placed the bottle cap on James's head like a crown. "There", she giggled, in a good mood from the nice treatment she was getting. "Now you're my prince, James."

Biting back an enormous smile, James asked shyly, "And is the prince allowed to... k-kiss his princess?" He braced himself both physically and emotionally for the blows that were sure to come from Jessie's fists and mouth.

"No", said Jessie, frowning. "James, that's so sexist. Let me kiss you instead."

Meowth caught the bottle cap as it fell from James's head.

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Well, that wasn't _too_ bad, was it? WAS IT??? -panics-


End file.
